We all love to laugh at the early domestic subcompacts–Pinto, Vega, Gremlin and all the rest–but I have to admit having a soft spot for them. In particular, I have always liked the Pinto station wagons, especially the Squire. For some reason they always seemed more attractive to me than the sedans and hatchbacks. But the really rare one these days is the badge-engineered Mercury Bobcat, with its mini-Marquis schnoz. So of course I had to share this tidy example currently on the Bay of E.

While the Pinto was introduced in 1971, the Bobcat didn’t come along until 1974, and that was only for the Canadian market. With the 1973 gas crunch and 1975 recession, land-yacht landlocked L-M dealers apparently complained loudly enough for the little Merc to debut in the U.S. halfway through the 1975 model year. Like pretty much every Mercury after 1971 or so, it was a slightly restyled Ford.

Despite its obvious origins, I always sort of liked the Bobcat, though I remember seeing only one as a kid. A friend of my father’s had to borrow his brother’s car for a few days, and it was a mint green Bobcat sedan (same color as the one above) with the standard wheel covers and (I think) whitewalls. Mike didn’t think too much of it and couldn’t wait to get his ’82 Delta 88 coupe back, but I thought it was cool. Back then (also true today, by and large), most cars I hadn’t seen before were instantly cool and interesting.

Despite the late start, the Bobcat hung on right up to the Pinto’s end in 1980. Naturally, they didn’t sell quite as well as the Ford version, but I imagine they were a useful tool to upsell L-M customers into a Monarch or, later on, a Zephyr. I can just imagine Jerry Lundegaard telling a customer, “For just a few dollars more a month, you can get this beautiful Monarch Ghia instead, and we’ll even throw in the Tru-Coat!”

But what is that chrome blanking plate on the fender? For those of you familiar with these cars, that is where the radio aerial would have gone. Yes folks, this is a radio-delete car, which is somewhat at odds with its styled steel wheels, chrome trim rings and sporty red paint.

The interior was a bit nicer than the equivalent Pinto, in keeping with its slightly higher price. This was the base interior, but it still looks rather nice for a late ’70s subcompact, with its multi-color vinyl buckets, and ample plastiwood.

As you can see in this shot from the ’77 Bobcat brochure, a very Broughamy “Alpine” tufted plaid interior was available for a bit extra. Yes, in the ’70s you could get real interior colors. And that Alpine interior was available in orange with black dash and carpeting too!

But no one bought one of these wagons for their passenger capacity. The draw was the ample cargo area. Just look at that back seat. It looks even smaller than the back of the ’73 Volvo 1800ES Mom used to have, and I was five when they traded it in!

This car is currently listed on ebay (original listing with lots more pics can be found here), being sold out of Virginia. According to the seller the paint is all original except the right front fender, and the car sports just over 69K miles. With options like factory A/C, power steering and power brakes and automatic transmission, it is odd that the original owner did not want a radio. Imagine that today!

The seller mentions that the car has a few dents and dings, but that he would leave it as is. I tend to agree, as they’re only original once, and I’d rather see a well-loved original than an over-restored classic that lives in a trailer and never sees the road. One thing is for sure: This would be an excellent car to take to car cruises, as one can only look at so many Mustangs and Camaros before going into Over-Restored Muscle Car Dementia (ORMCD), which can only be solved by looking at vintage four door sedans, wagons and trucks.

61 Comments

I’ve got a thing for the Pinto platform because of the one I had in the mid 80s, and would be delighted to find a Pinto wagon in such good nick today. But I have to admit, I never liked the tacked-on upright grille on the Bobcat; it kind of ruined the look for me.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a Pinto/Bobcat with anything other than the standard hi-back front buckets.

I’m not laughing at the Pinto/Bobcat or Gremlin. I’m maybe crying at the Vega. Where I continue to differ from (apparently) most of us is my disdain for the cars that everyone calls broughams. The small cars were Americas attempt to adapt to changing world conditions with come class. The broughams were our attempt to hold on to the past.

Ugh. No nostalgia for these, as sharp as this example looks. You don’t know until you sit in one how little room they have and how loooow the driver sits. Then once the springs sag in those seats, as they all do, the seats begin to envelop you when you sit in them. They’re bucket seats as in sitting in a bucket of quicksand.

Ahh, so that’s what the “E” stands for in HPE? I never woulda thunk it… and even though that’s one of many Lancias I’m crazy about, I gotta call BS on the HPE. If that car is a wagon, then what is a Saab 900? I will admit that HPH doesn’t have quite the same ring to it…

The VW Fox was also the first thing that sprung to my mind as the last 2-door wagon. I always thought of that Geo Storm “shooting brake” as more of an oddly-styled hatchback.

This is slightly off topic, but upon seeing that picture of the ’75 Cougars, I figure I might as well ask: Is it true that those two holes in the middle of the bumper were put there to improve cooling? (As far as I know the 74’s didn’t have them).

So to atone for my off-topic transgression, here’s a picture of my personal favorite variant of the Pinto/Bobcat wagons, the Pinto Cruising Wagon.

I will go on record as liking the Bobcat front end, particularly on the wagons. With the start of the big bumper era, I thought that the bigger Bobcat grille balanced out the plated log below it just a bit better.

Now that Tom has gone public as one who cruises EBay for Pintos and Bobcats, I will confess that I nearly did a similar piece on a beautiful 64 Studebaker Cruiser sedan I came across recently. Is there a hopelessly-uncool-cars-on-Ebay Anonymous chapter around?

Tidy? No Tom thats mint hard to credit it hasnt been restored as usual with these I aint seen a real one though the shifter looks very farmiliar like out of a Cortina that were rare in automatic for reasons which are obvious the moment you tramp it in drive.

At least the Pinto/Bobcat had its few gauges in front of the driver, as compared with certain modern subcompacts which placed them in the center, as if it’s no longer cost-effective to make dashes for RHD Japan/Ireland/Commonwealth markets.

I still remember the ad jingle …. “Love that Bobcat!!” Anyway, I think radio delete wasn’t that uncommon in those days, when most OEM radios were pretty bad, the aftermarket was booming with in-dash cassette, bigger speakers, separate woofers and tweeters etc, and there were car stereo shops along every commercial strip between the mattress stores and the transmission shops. This was way before the big subwoofer and amp craze.

The radio delete plate on the right fender reminds me of a story about my Dad. My Dad’s beloved 72 Polara 2 dr came without a radio. When I got a decent job out of the service in 1973, I convinced Dad to let me put a radio in the Dodge. So, I shopped around and bought an AM/FM 8 track stereo at Sears. I don’t remember the price, but I guarantee it was far from top of the line. After pondering the thought of drilling not only the dash, but the fender also (no pry off plate on the Dodge), I decided to check with an installation place near where I worked. They told me they’d install the radio,antenna, and speakers (The parcel shelf was set up for speakers, just bolt in from the trunk) for $ 20, and I made an appointment.

My Dad dropped me off at work, and drove to the place a few blocks away. There, he was told that when the fender was drilled, they were not responsible for any mishap. The guy went on to tell my Dad that the best plan of attack was to get dimensions of an identical Polara as to proper antenna location. He went on to say that it was pretty easy to mess up a fender. (At that point, I’d have thanked the guy, and given the radio back to Sonny, and told him not to mess with my car)

My Dad visited a number of junk yards and dealers before he found a 72 Polara. He returned with the measurements and everything went OK. The installer told my Dad that his measurements were on the dot; there was not much room for error.

Not many Dads would have had the patience that mine showed with me. This story was one of many. What a great guy!

My theory on the radio delete is that the original owner was deaf! By 1978, going without a radio was pretty uncommon; almost like not having a heater. For someone to special-order an otherwise well-equipped car with no radio, it would be the most likely explanation.

Then again, it could simply be a case of a grumpy, stubborn older person who didn’t want a damn radio in their damn car because they damn well can listen to the damn radio when they’re at home, damn it. As for why such a person would order a car painted Lipstick Red, the possible explanation would be that there’s nothing wrong with a red car, red’s kind of pretty, my first car was a red Model A, nothing wrong with that, but I don’t need a damn radio, the Model A didn’t have a damn radio…

Personally I think it was just a f*ck up on the line and the wagon got pawned off on a dealer at a reduced price. We got a car once about 1979 where they installed the wrong armrest switchplate on the car and the passenger side door had no power lock switch.

The last radio delete car I remember ever seeing on the lot was in 1984. By then GM had switched to the DIN+1/2 (DELCO 2000) radio unit and it was far more difficult to drop in an aftermarket unit without using an adapter. Plus the 2000 Series radios were significantly better.

I just can’t get over the red paint, if it is original, as it just screams like someone had fun at Scheib.

Well, for what it’s worth, we bought our first Honda (base ’89 Civic three door hatch) with no radio and no a/c (in Atlanta, GA). Money was *very* tight at that point. I put an aftermarket radio in after a couple months, and had the dealer install a/c after about 1-1/2 years (it was actually cheaper that way than if we had ordered it with).

That was Honda’s business model back then; A/C, radio, RH mirror, & other fruit were usually dealer options, esp. for the DX; no doubt it simplified Honda’s manufacturing logistics & added dealer profit. I also declined a dealer stereo for my ’88 Accord so I could go aftermarket instead. One less thing to haggle over. Nowadays, all that stuff is standard anyway, thanks to “luxury inflation.”

It may only have been psychological, but Detroit always gave me the impression that they’d make me pay the last farthing for stuff the Japanese provided gratis. The Bathtub Rambler was one exception.

It was Honda’s and Toyota’s model to charge for all of those little extras…

When I was selling Toyotas we made all kinds of money with those $200 RH mirrors. In 1991 we were charging $1000 to install A/C in Tercels and Corollas, sometimes you could add 10 to 20% of the car’s cost with those units.

I’m not really sure what you thought was gratis on the Japanese cars, as I recall most Detroiters (and Europeans) were far more completely outfitted than most Japanese cars. You paid extra for everything it seemed, especially on the smaller cars. Armrests (the ones on the doors), between the seats armrests, RH mirrors, radios, A/C units were all extra cost and extra installation on those cars. All but the most basic domestic cars came with all of that stuff already, at least by the early 90’s when I was selling.

The 70’s was one of the first big pushes in aftermarket radios, it was not that uncommon to see some cars without radios, because they were either going to be installed by the new owner, or, installed by the dealer, who would probably make an extra little bit on the dealer installed job rather than the factory radio.

Yes and no; the 70’s and particularly the late 70’s is when the aftermarket really went after the market; I can remember any number of good units with the Pioneer SuperTuner being one of the best back then. All of the cool kids had them… I wasn’t one of the cool kids, I had a Kraco!

If you remember, you paid a HUGE amount more for a AM/FM factory unit from the big three, it weighed about 40 lbs and STILL didn’t have either an 8-track or cassette player built in. For a radio delete credit and the same or less money at any number of “stereo” shops across the country, (even Sears for Pete’s sake!) you could get pretty decent sound and a cassette player for less than the factory option.

The Pioneer unit (or the Kraco for that matter) didn’t weigh as much either. All these years later, that is the one characteristic that still stands out in my mind. I can remember liberating the radios from my various Ford products of the time, and they all seemed to weigh a ton!

The high quality, great sounding radios with excellent FM reception (dual superheterodynes! phase lock linear tuning!) and a decent set of Jensen or Pioneer rear package shelf speakers (6×9) and front door kick panel speakers made it sound like Pink Floyd was holding a concert on your dashboard. Add on an amp and equalizer to really blow your buddies away… Let’s not get started on what was installed in vans, that was a whole other issue…

My 2009 G6 has a factory system that I could not even begin to fathom in 1979. Six CD player, 300 amp RMS power, 10 speakers, AM/FM/XM bands… All it needs is a weather band and a way to read my emails and I think I’m set!

Wheras even the cheapest AM stock radio HAD BETTER WORK – at least for as long as it took the rest of the car to rust out…

Dave C.

Posted March 13, 2013 at 10:16 AM

That cheaper Sears unit we had in the Dodge still worked when the car was hit in 1987. About 14 years usage. I recall that the 8 track didn’t work, and the tuning cord was broken. But the radio worked well , just tuned stations by ear.

Remember the era: The standard 1970s-era car radio was AM only; and AM had hit a new nadir in programming. Only easy-listening and religious broadcasting and the odd “news radio” format were on AM. Album rock had moved to FM; Top-40 was following; C&W was strictly regional.

There wasn’t much to listen to, if you weren’t into heavy-metal or Top 40. You could always, laboriously, bootleg cassettes from your buddy’s collection…if he’d let you. Or spend a quarter of your disposable income on cassettes.

Going without a radio wasn’t so horrible…about as bad as CKLW’s playlist was. (C’mon – you Midwest types know the reference. “MO-tah City weather, on THE BIG EIGHT…”)

CKLW came in as loud as any local station – Windsor was only a hundred miles away as the crow flies; and they were a clear-channel 50,000-watt blowtorch.

WMMS had only opened shop in 1973; it was about 1976 or so that Malrite, the owners, realized that their experimental no-playlist format had staying power. Besides: what kid had an FM radio in those days? That was for the audiophile crowd.

I always thought WMJI was the big radio station in Cleveland. or 3WE for AM.

JustPassinThru

Posted March 13, 2013 at 2:00 AM

WMJI was WWWM after it was sold to Larry Robinson “The Diamond Man.” M-105 was a WMMS wannabee and didn’t work out.

3WE was “adult contemporary” and heavy on sports. It was owned by Nick Miletti, who owned the Cavaliers and built the Coliseum. Before he bought the station it was WKYC and a Top-40 station, with a little softer mix to make it family-safe.

Radios were still options on some cars into the 90’s. A buddy of mine in college bought a new car after landing his first real job. It was a 1988 Escort Pony that was the loss leader for the Saturday paper. It had no radio. In 1991 the then wife of another friend of my bought the loss leader Escort from the local dealer it too had no radio. In both cases it did not take long until an aftermarket stereo was installed in each.

That was about the time things started changing. The airbags and other safety changes hiked average prices; and to give the impression the buyer was getting more, a lot of near-universal options were made standard. Including a radio.

Yep, reminds me of an early 70’s Oldsmobile 98 I saw for sale awhile back that didn’t have a radio. The story was that supposedly the car’s original owner lived out in some incredibly desolate area of Kansas and couldn’t pull in any local radio stations.

Well, I have to chime in on this one. To some of the questions about the color red, and its brightness and whether it is original, yes it is! How do I know? My first car when I graduated from high school in 1981 was a candyapple red 1975 Ford LTD Landau 2 door. What a car!! For an Iowa kid from a family of seven, whose family car was a ranch wagon, and the second car and third car were Pinto wagons, the LTD was living high. Deep red paint, black vinyl roof and trim accents, fender skirts, headloght doors, very high level cashmere-like upholstery, power options and air conditioning. It was a bank repo that dad bought for $700 that June when the wagon finally crapped out after being abused by 4 teenage drivers.

I spent that summer polishing, waxing, tuning and cruising. By the fall of 1982 I needed to secure my own wheels for when I would leave for college after the first two years at the local community college.

Enter the first car I ever purchased with my name on the title in the form of a 1976 Mercury Bobcat Wagon. 2.3 L 4 cyl, 4 speed manual. Exact same color as the one in this CC, but with the woodgrain side panels. The interior was the same red pictured above, but with the low back alpine plaid bucket seats. Also had the styled steel wheels, same as the one above. The family ultimately went through about 5 of the Pinto/Bobcats, 4 wagons and a runabout. All of ours were extremely reliable little cars, very good gas mileage for the day, and the wagons could certainly carry a lot of gear and stuff.

It had about 60,000 miles on it when I bought the car, and I can still remember like it was yesterday trying to choose at the used lot between the Bobcat wagon in orange with no woodgrain and the high back buckets in a chamois color, or the red “Villager” model that I eventually bought. I used that car with no real problems for 4 years. My last 2 college years and first 2 in law school before I finally traded it off for a Mazda pickup.

How much stuff could they haul? I still remember taking a twin size mattress and box spring along with headboard and frame in that car to my college apartment from home with the rear hatch fully closed. Then a second trip for the desk, clothes, and other miscellaneous stuff. When I lived in the dorms we would use the Bobcat to haul lumber from the local lumber yard to construct lofts. Took the spare tire out of the well under the carpet to fill the well with ice and beverages when going to the local drive in theatres.

Love the Bobcat! Great memories from simpler times. I began dating the gal that would become my wife when I was still driving that car. All she remembers is that “god awful red plaid upholstery” which was one of my favorite features. It was just so darn lively! With upholstery like that, it was always spring inside that car!

This car reminds me how much I miss chrome moldings. The Bobcat has them around the side windows, on the wheel openings, rocker panels and then there is the fancy bodyside molding. Add the wheel trims rings and you have one fine looking wagon. Ford did a nice job on this detail back then, getting the thickness of the side window moldings just right.

The Lincoln-Mercury dealer in my town often ordered cars without radios, it was strange to see an otherwise loaded Marquis Brougham with a delete plate. I used to pester the old man to get FM, never did, until ’82 when he couldn’t avoid it. Of course by that time, FM had largely abandoned free format and AOR for top 40, so it didn’t matter. In 1980,I put an Audiovox AM-FM unit in my newly acquired 1976 Omega so I was able to enjoy decent music without a tape player for about 2 years.

I bought my first car several months after getting my license in the fall of 82. The 74 Gran Torino only had an AM Radio. Not very cool for a 17 year old. A few months later – my Dad took me to a local stereo store where he knew the owner. I picked out an AM/FM Cassette player and two Jensen 6 x 9 coaxials for the rear – the triaxials and the quadraxials (sp?) were too expensive.

But the best part was my Dad, who really wasn’t that mechanically inclined, helped me install the stereo and speakers – and really seemed to know what he was doing.

Re the “no radio” issue…if any of y’all ever lived in a part of the country with a substantial Mennonite (*strict* Mennonite, that is) population, there would be at least a few cars floating around that were *intentionally* ordered radio delete, for religious reasons. Even more severe would be the Mennonites who painted all the brightwork, chrome, etc. on their cars *black*, ostensibly for the sake of modesty. I own a ’65 LeSabre sedan, well equipped (ps, pb, a/c, Super Turbine 400)…and RADIO DELETE. Delivered late in the model year (August of ’65)…”unusually optioned” by mistake…or on purpose? The only way I’ll find out is if I start stalking the descendants of the original owner. And yeah, I’m a car guy and everything…love the history, especially…but I just *can’t* go the creepy route. Sorry!

there was one of these for sale in the San Diego area a while back. probably not as good condition as this is but defiantly a interesting car. i have seen a pinto wagon that had what appears to be the framing of the faux wood on it the wood siding is gone

Interesting about the Ford Pinto , Mercury Bobcat being the same car. The Ford Mustang and Mercury Cougar started out being the same car, but the Cougar grew to mid size like the Torino. Would have been interesting to see a Mustang Cougar through the 70s. There was a Mercury Capri , but it wasn’t the same as the Mustang until 1978.

When we bought a new Escort in 1987, all the Fords came without radios and the dealer had a display with about 10 different systems you could have installed, or you could go to a shop and get an aftermarket system. Maybe it was just the one dealer.
My Bobcat has a factory AM radio, works but does not sound the greatest.